Dramatic Conclusion to Day 1g Sees Vitali Tasci Take the Chip Lead
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It was another action-packed day here at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City with the last 15 minutes proving to be the most dramatic of all. It looked to be a certainty that Getnet Kassa would finish as chip leader but a huge clash with Vitali Taschi changed everything.
Yesterday Kassa busted in the last hand of the day with his pocket-aces losing to ace-ten suited all in preflop. Today the final hand of the night proved to be his undoing after he lost full house to full house for almost 450,000 chips. Taschi advances with 446,500 – over 100,000 more than his closest rival Patrick Clouden (339,500). Two late doubles secured Xuequn Zhu third place for 296,500; Josep Vives (251,500) took fourth; and Dan Spataru (233,000) rounded out the top five.
In total there were 164 entries (108 unique), of which 33 were left standing once the dust had settled. They generated £19,680 for the prize pool bringing the running total to £69,000, with one starting flight left to play out. If the prize pool wasn’t enough of a draw, there is also a coveted Platinum Pass to the PSPC 2020 to be won (worth around $30,000).
There were other notables including Jen-Yue Chiang (162,000), Ben Winsor (127,000) and Marc Inizan (63,00) who made it through. Not everyone fared so well, with Antonis Poulengeris, James Mitchell, Jimmy Kebe and Richard King all exiting before the end.
Tonight sees the eighth and final flight take place, providing the last opportunity for hopefuls to try their hand at taking a stack through to Day 2. Play will resume for the second day tomorrow, Saturday, November 9th at 2pm. Levels will remain at 30-minutes long and the tournament will play down to either the final table or the end of 15 levels, whichever comes first.
PokerNews will be on-site providing coverage with live updates for the duration, in what is expected to be yet another exciting day of poker.